Archive for January, 2012
Robert + Vivian | La Jolla wedding
Shooting Robert and Vivian’s wedding at Cuvier Park in La Jolla was a perfect beginning to my year of photographing weddings. When the weather is perfect, which it was, this is one of my favorite places to watch the ocean in San Diego. After their intimate ceremony with just their immediate families, we took portraits on the beach and at the U.S. Grant in downtown San Diego.
Remembering Tracy Turpen
Last summer I experienced an enthralling engagement shoot with two photographers I had never met before. Meeting at a cheap hotel in Alamogordo, N.M., we loaded two plastic sleds in the back of my car and headed for the sand dunes they found searching the internet from their home in North Carolina. The pictures we took on this day are the best engagement portraits I’ve ever taken. Tracy and Tyler deserve all the credit. Their ideas, excitement and enchanting love for one another took these portraits to a whole new level. Both of them just laughed and smiled and moved effortlessly in front of the camera. They were charming and sweet to me and it was obvious that they had been thinking about this moment for a long time.
Earlier Tyler had told me on the phone that they had finally found a perfect place for their wedding in the Appalachian Mountains and were excited for me to see it. I was eager to be their wedding photographer but secretly frightened that I would not be able to create the same level of pictures that I did with their engagement photos. More recently, I received an inquiry from a couple who said Tracy had recommended me to them. I wanted to write Tracy an email to thank her and also congratulate her for all of her photos that placed in the Junebug Weddings Best of the Best photo contest. Before I sent this message, I found out that Tracy had passed away. I am devastated for the wedding photography community, her family and friends, the lover that she brought to the sand dunes on that hot summer day and most of all for her little boy, Evander. Tracy, I will never forget the magic that happened at white sands, the passion I witnessed and the happiness that you spread.
Best of the Best 2011 Award
Junebug Weddings has published their annual gallery of the year’s best wedding photos and I am thrilled to be included. The gallery of 50 photos was chosen from almost 5,000 entries and includes some of the top names in the industry. While I am excited to receive this top award, I am also reminded how talented my friends and colleagues are. This honor is a great way to begin a new and exciting year with lots of new possibilites ahead. Congratulations to Kerri Peto for being beautiful inside and out and for her recent news of starting a family.
